We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.
– Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune, U.S. civil rights pioneer and activist
Women’s Issues Information Centre together with Centre MARTA (Latvia), Colectivo MosaiQ (Spain) and The Future Now Association (TFN) (Bulgaria) teamed up to create a space for young people to be themselves, receive understanding and support, and face the future with more hope.
The Warriors against GBV Project is created to train and empower youth workers by providing them with innovative methods of working with young people who are victims of gender-based violence.
We believe that victims of violence must be constantly supported and assisted, provided with a safe environment, understood, and heard.
Name of the project: Warriors against Gender-based Violence
Duration: 03/01/2022 – 30/10/2023
Problem statement:
Young people are neglected in their need for personal support, understanding and education not only in formal manners but also in questions of self-awareness, self-knowledge, as well as interpersonal relationships and boundaries. They are experiencing violence in their lives.
In the EU, 1 in 3 women and girls over the age of 15 has experienced physical and/or sexual violence. 1 in 2 has experiences sexual harassment, 1 in 5 has experienced stalking, 1 in 20 has been raped. (EIGE, 2015) A quarter of LGBTI+ people have been attacked or threatened with violence (FRA, 2012).
Beyond the numbers, we can see a culture of inequality creating a very different life environment for anyone in a vulnerable position or deemed outside the established gender norms. There is an ever-growing need to support victims, create spaces for them to be safe, heard and understood, as well as create mechanics for improvement, sharing, community and support. We need to support both victims of GBV, and organizations, working to combat it. We need active and dedicated warriors against gender-based violence.
Obvious gaps in the previously discussed knowledge leads to gruesome results of violence, self-hatred, self-harm and worse. There is a need to:
Objectives:
- Educate both youth workers and young people on gender-based violence, empowering them to be proactive parts of supportive communities, and agents – warriors – for positive change and combating violence.
- Build and promote – through communication and exchange- a sustainable community, engaged in the topic of gender-based violence, created by individuals and organizations in the EU.
- Provide young people and youth organizations with a platform: a safe space, in which they are encouraged to share, be heard, and support other people in need of the same treatment.
- Connect and unite organizations, working in the field; equip them with new tools and support their understanding and identification of gender-based violence in victims and in perpetrators.
- Expand the impact of existing efforts combating gender-based violence through awareness-raising, good practices exchange and collaboration with various actors in the field.
- Take part in achieving Sustainable Development Goals #4, #5 and #16 through engagement of youth and youth workers and attention to connectivity, relationship- and community-building, effective engagement, and tools for capacity building.
Activities:
- Development of the Warrior platform for organizations and individuals. The content of the platform consists of important milestones for the project, including the creation of the quizzes for self-assessment, the establishment of online spaces both for organizations, youth, community-building, safe spaces, as well as project results.
- Development of a Guide with best practices for youth work in the field of combating GBV, will be led by MARTA.
- Elaboration of a Methodology for creating and operating safe spaces online and offline, inviting youth workers to explore the subject of safe spaces learn a new methodology and participate in the Warriors platform to support young people from across Europe.
Project results:
- The self-assessment quizzes
- The interactive map of services
- The methodology in creating online and offline safe spaces and the space I the platform for that purpose
- Space for exchange and community building between organizations in the field of combating gender-based violence
- The guide on best practices.
The project partnership is highly motivated to contribute to the fight against this type of violence and to give voice and opportunity to victims to make them feel supported, understood, and safe!
Project partners: The Future Now Association (TFN) (Bulgaria), Centrs MARTA (Latvia), Asociación Colectivo MosaiQ (Spain).
Coordinator: Moteru Informacijos Centras Asociacija MIC (Lithuania), project managers and researchers: Rugile Butkeviciute rugile@lygus.lt and Dovile Rukaite dovile@lygus.lt. Project technician and youth worker Kristina Kiselyte kristina@lygus.lt.
The project is funded by the Erasmus + program (KA220: Strategic Partnerships in Youth)
